"Fly Me To The Moon…"

…Don’t deny it, you all know the words. So, what’s it all about? Well, not content with just mapping the earth, and in what is the biggest step so far in the currently raring digital mapping race, Google have mapped a section of the moon – to celebrate the day that man first se Life After Life Communication t foot on the moon, July 20th 1969. Google post on their official blog about the mission, saying that it was actually a birthday wish from one of the staff members, and that – amazingly – the whole thing was conceived within a week!

“It helps to have a working demo. After our satellite maps integration was completed, Chikai, a Google Earth engineer, had time to make his lunar dream a reality — sort of. Everyone loved the demo but it gathered moon dust for a few months while Google Earth was being readied.”

“Until Google acquired Keyhole, Chikai and I both lacked co-workers with the same birthday. Fortunately, someone raised the moon idea again on our birthday. And thus the wish was made. Interestingly enough, several product people are also moon children, which probably helped.”

“A week later, we’ve achieved lift-off for Google Moon. It’s great to stand on the shoulders of giants, especially the brave and brilliant people at NASA we commemorate and whose data made this possible. And it’s energizing to work at a company that can translate a birthday wish into a product in a week.”

Google have used satellite imagery from NASA to produce the feature, which gives you a zoom level of around 8 notches – allowing you to see quite a lot of the detail that there is to see, even for as small a chunk of the moon as it is. Zooming in also gives a nice, funny added touch. Currently you can check out the locations that the Apollo astronauts made their landings; as well as the astronauts on board and their jobs. You can see the locations of Apollo crafts 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Camilla Todd Camilla Todd is Head of Digital Marketing at WNW Digital and manages Search Engine Optimisation, PPC, Social Media campaigns and Brand Awareness for WNW Digital SEO clients. You can follow her on Twitter @camilla_wnw, email her at camilla@wnwdigital.co.uk or phone on 01392 349580